THE WANDERER (Chapter 12)

The Wanderer (Chapter 12)

We had left the camp at daybreak. With Caspar in the lead walking closely next to me, and with Clark, Velvet, Julie, Brandon and Li in tow.

It seemed we had been walking for hours through the dark woods, the canopy gave us a little shade from the sun that was burning down hot now.

I wondered how far this place they called ‘The Complex’ was.

‘Not far now’, Caspar said and the others turned their heads.

‘According to my map, we should be on it in a few minutes.’

‘About time, my feet are killing me’, Julie said.

‘Oh Julie, get it together sweetheart!’ Velvet said.

‘Not far now, baby, we’ll be there soon’, Caspar answered.

Li had studied the fragment for quite a while now. Her intuition told her that there was something here that she needed to decipher. Just had to. She took another look at the sample of the rock in front of her. In her mind she was putting the pieces together.

‘I think we have something here, not quite sure yet, but I believe it reads: ‘Book of Shadows’.

Does that make sense to anyone?’

Brandon looked at her, his face was turning white.

‘They know about this?’, Brandon whispered.

Li turned and looked at the others and shrugged.

She took a snapshot and she and Brandon joined the others, walking on.

‘She’s leaving digital footprints, not a good idea…’, Brandon thought wearily.

Julie was walking ahead of them. She had intercepted ‘The Signal’. 

She had scrambled the encoding. 

Now, she was busy hacking in.

‘This is Julie Strummer, thanks for tuning in…’

I turned to Caspar ‘What’s that place, The Complex I mean, what’s it all about?’

‘A long time ago, explorers found it deep in the middle of the forest. They couldn’t make sense of it. The structure seemed alien, not man-made. They attributed the construction to the Gods, which might as well have been aliens.’ Caspar answered and continued.

‘It is rumored that it was used to conduct human experiments under alien supervision.

After the pandemic, it was turned into a food distribution center, go figure… We need to pick up some supplies here.…We need to be careful though, it’s rumored that The Wanderer has a hideout here. An old bunker’.

We quickened our pace.

After another 20 minutes or so, we came upon a clearing in the woods.

Suddenly, Julie stopped us in our tracks.

’Wait… I’m picking up something…’

Her hands were massaging her temples.

‘What is it, Julie?’, Caspar turned to her.

‘We’re not alone’, Julie answered.

The complex was an old food distribution center powered by green energy power plants. It was massive. It also served as a black market for finding anything you might need. It is said that The Wanderer was spotted there, once or twice.

Suddenly circular rods sprung out of the ground buzzing with static electricity.

The group had triggered an alarm system.

A shady, Greek looking man stepped out in front of them.

‘Hello guys, it’s Odysseus Fanakis, your favorite person in the world! Are you here to pick up your camp supplies? I have them all ready for you’

Caspar answered:

‘No, Ody we are not going back to the camp this time, we are on our way to find and meet the Wanderer. Could use some ammo though.’

Clark said: ‘Yeah, ammo is always is a good thing these days. Can’t have enough of it.’

Odysseus produced a vague smile.

‘Well, The Wanderer, eh? I have some road supplies for you and here’s some ammo.

Take care out there! Be careful not to run into the Watchers. They are always around, you know!’

Caspar smiled back and said: ‘Thanks, brother! Will do.’

We picked up our supplies and started to proceed deeper through the complex.

‘Stop!’ A tall figure stepped out of the shadows of the trees. The stranger was dressed in a dark robe, his face was obscured by the shadow of the trees. ‘Don’t go any further!’, he commanded. I looked at Caspar, his face was ashen.

We had met The Wanderer. We all froze in place.

For some strange intuitive reason I looked at my wrist watch. It read 11:11.

‘Hey, anyone know where Velvet is?’, Julie shouted.

Everyone turned around. Velvet had vanished.

Before anyone could answer, The Wanderer stretched out his arms and softly said: ‘WATCH!’

We all fell into a dream like state.

(The Wanderer is showing them what ANRAC, leader of the alien race had built for their minds.)